Auckland band Herbs could have released their new album in the comfortable confines of an Auckland nightclub. Instead, they travelled to Ruatoria — a troubled and divided East Coast town where turmoil surrounding a Rastafarian sect had resulted in assaults, kidnappings and firebombed churches. Lee Tamahori and John Day's documentary captures an emotional experience for band and locals as they meet at Mangahanea Marae, in an attempt to shift the focus from disunity to harmony. This footage also yielded the award-winning Sensitive to a Smile music video.

It's hard to reduce legendary band Split Enz down to a single sound or image. Soon after forming in 1973, they began dressing like oddball circus performers, and their music straddled folk, vaudeville and art rock. Later the songs got shorter, poppier and — some say —better, and the visuals were toned down...but you could never accuse the Enz of looking biege. With Split Enz co-founder Tim Finn turning 65 in June 2017, this collection looks back at one of Aotearoa's most successful and eclectic bands. Writer Michael Higgins unravels the evolution of the Enz here.

Jock Phillips begins his journey through our Waitangi collection by recalling an awkward encounter with a security guard at the treaty grounds. Wandering 50 years between the first film in this collection and the last, Phillips explores changing attitudes to the Treaty. Discover everything from Mike King on the treaty trail, to trench warfare, waka-building and epic drama.

Māori Television hit the airwaves on 28 March 2004. This collection demonstrates how the network has staked its place as Aotearoa's indigenous broadcaster. The kete is overflowing with tasty morsels — from comedy, waiata, hunting and language learning, to award-winning coverage of Anzac Day. Māori Television HOD of Content Development Nevak Rogers backgrounds some MTS highlights here, while Tainui Stephens unravels the history of Māori on television here: choose from te reo and English versions of each backgrounder. 

Polyfest, the annual secondary schools' Māori and Pacific Island cultural festival, attracts around 90,000 people and 9000 performers from 64 schools to Manukau Sports Bowl. The 2017 Māori Television coverage, hosted by Sonny Ngatai, showcased every kapa haka performance over 50 30 minute slots. This episode features former winners and 2016 runners-up Ngā Puna o Waiōrea (Western Springs College), who perform routines including poi and haka. Puawai Taiapa (Pūkana) and social media stars Cougar Boys and Chardé Heremaia (Memoirs of a Māori) interview rangatahi.

Ka Haku Au — A Poet's Lament won Best Māori Language show in 2009. The one-hour documentary drama celebrates the life and songs of Kohine Whakarua Ponika. The largely unsung Tūhoe, Ngāti Porou composer — who couldn't read a note of music, created some of the most popular Māori waiata written, including 'Aku Mahi', 'Kua Rongorongo' and 'E Rona E'. Mostly in Te Reo, the show features Kohine's whānau in dramatic roles, performances and interviews. Kohine's children produced a CD of her waiata, available on iTunes, which in turn inspired the documentary.

This 2002 documentary explores the stories behind one of Aotearoa’s most beloved songs: ‘Pokarekare Ana’. Claims for the authorship of the waiata aroha are examined, and Kiwis famous and lesser known reflect on the song’s place in the culture. Directed by Chas Toogood, the doco features classic performances: from St Joseph’s Girls’ Choir singing in the Waitomo Caves in 1960, to Inia Te Wiata going low in English, Kiri Te Kanawa soaring in concert, Hinewehi Mohi enlisting a 30,000 strong league crowd as backing singers, and sailing away in a 1987 America’s Cup campaign song. 

In this report for arts show Kaleidoscope, Aileen O'Sullivan interviews writer Witi Ihimaera about Waituhi - The Life of the Village, an operatic collaboration with Pākehā composer Ross Harris. Amidst rehearsals before the opera's September 1984 premiere in Wellington, Ihimaera opens up about the personal and spiritual inspirations behind his first ever libretto. Ihimaera has used Waituhi, the East Coast village of his birth, as the setting for several of his novels. His libretto for Waituhi weaves together stories and waiata of love and loss from different generations of one whānau.

Filmed at Kauwhata Marae in the Manawatu, The Beginner’s Guide to Visiting the Marae is a straightforward and respectful explanation of basic marae protocol, from the wero, to the karanga, pōwhiri, whaikōrero, waiata, koha and the hongi. The programme was made in 1984 when Pākehā were generally less familiar with visiting marae, so host Ian Johnstone presents the documentary from the perspective of a person rather more apprehensive about marae protocol than might be the case in 2011. That aside, the doco remains an effective primer for 21st Century marae novices.

In this 2014 documentary, singer Whirimako Black explores the World War II experience of her late father Stewart Black (who enlisted as Tai Paraki), and its legacy for his whānau. With her daughter Ngatapa — also a singer — Whirimako returns to Cassino in Italy. The 1944 battle helped forge the reputation of the Māori Battalion, but they suffered heavy losses, and it left survivors like Paraki with trauma and shame. The pair respond in word and song to the place — and to their koro’s memories, which were captured by director Reuben Collier for earlier doco Monte Cassino 60 Years On.